Dungeonville

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Product Description

You are a mad wizard who has inherited a terrible dungeon stocked with monstrous beings. For entertainment, you and the other mad wizards in your neighborhood will recruit parties of hapless adventurers to raid each other's dungeons and see whose is the most lethal. Your goal is to be the first to kill seven of the other wizards' adventurers.

Product Reviews

With the stereotypical images that are often conjured when a group of
folks get together to go dungeon delving in a role playing game, it
seems simply natural that a game parodying the entire genre would be
produced. Once of these games has achieved a certain degree of
popularity - Munchkin, although there are many, including myself, who
believe the fun in that game vanishes after only a play or two. When
I first saw Dungeonville (Z-man Games, 2005 - James Ernest and Mike Selinker), the artwork seemed to indicate that it was similar to
Munchkin. This was because both games feature the delightful
caricatures of John Kovalic of Dork Tower fame.

I've noticed that Dungeonville doesn't really get a lot of positive
press on the internet. Part of that is because the game reminds many
of Munchkin - at least in theme and art style. However, I believe
that it is more because the game has mechanics that sound rather
interesting yet fall short of final expectations. When played with
the right expectations, I am looking for a game that has some
interesting choices yet still remains as a light, enjoyable
experience. The theme relies mostly on the artwork and names; and
while the components are a bit lackluster, I find the game amusing in
small doses. I don't mind having a game that parodies the whole
dungeon delving experience - and this is the one.

Five dungeon cards (Crypt, Rathaus, Ice Cave, Goblin Camp, and the
Dragon's Lair) are placed on the table, each with a corresponding deck
of thirty-two room cards. Another deck of Adventurer cards is
shuffled and placed face down on the board. Five town cards are
placed on the board, each with a different price at the bottom -
starting with the Street (0 gold) to the Tavern (40 gold). Each
player is secretly dealt one deed card to one of the five dungeons,
with any leftover dungeons placed at a Deed House card. Each player
takes a pawn and "blood" tokens of their color, and one player (the
blood thirstiest) is chosen to go first - given the Seeing Stone card.
The first round is ready to begin.

The Adventurer cards have several items of information on them. There
is the name and picture of the adventurer, their class (minstrel,
henchman, gnome, etc.), their color (blue, green, brown, tan, no
color), their rank (from 1 to 64), and their usefulness in each of the
five dungeons (rated from "A" to "E"). At the beginning of the game
five of the adventurers are turned face up and sorted by rank, placing
the highest one at the Street, and continuing in descending order to
the Tavern. Each player is given a mock amount of forty gold and
takes turns recruiting characters for their team. When a character is
bought from one of the five locations, a new character is flipped
over, and the cards are adjusted accordingly. This continues until
each player has three characters, and the game starts.

The first phase of each round is Recruitment, in which players with
less than three characters can recruit new characters by paying gold
that they've found in the dungeons, or simply taking free ones from
the Street. After this, players decide during the Reconnaissance
phase which of the five dungeons they are going to send their party to
and place their token on them in turn order. If two or more players
go to the same dungeon, then combat occurs. Each player chooses three
of their adventurers, and places them face down in some order.
Players then simultaneously turn over each of the three characters -
with the player showing the lower rank (the stronger character)
winning the battle by killing the opponent. If the killed character
is the same color as the attacking character, the winning player
recruits him to his party instead. Otherwise, the dead character is
discarded, and the winning player receives one blood token from the
other. After combat, the player with the most survivors is the one
that explores the dungeon. Players who go to a dungeon alone may take
their entire party in.

When exploring a dungeon, the player turns over the top card of that
dungeon. Most of the cards have a letter on them, from "A" to "E";
there are ten "E" cards, seven "D" cards, five "C" cards, four "B"
cards, and three "A" cards. The player checks each of their
adventurer skill value for that particular dungeon. If any of the
adventurers value is the same letter as the card flipped, then one of
these adventurers must immediately die. They are discarded, and the
player places one of their blood tokens on the dungeon. Then,
regardless to whether or not someone died, the player may take the
card for its treasure value (five to twenty-five gold). The card
drawn may also be an item card, which can be equipped on an adventurer
with the matching class. For example, The Footsoldier's Shield allows
any Footsoldier to be substituted whenever another adventurer dies in
a dungeon.

If a character dies, or the player draws an item, they must draw
another card. Otherwise, they may "escape" the dungeon, taking their
characters and their loot. Sadly, a player may only take loot equal
to the total amount of their player's rank. (i.e. Dean Cranberry, who
is ranked ten, can only carry ten gold.) Once a player escapes a
dungeon (or their party is wiped out), the next player takes their
exploration turn, until all players have gone. Players keep their
gold which they can spend on recruitment in future rounds.

There are a few other rules, such as a player paying fifty gold to
change the deed to their dungeon, or some of the characters (such as
the Assassin and Jester) having special rules - but that's basically
it. Once one player has collected seven blood tokens, between those
collected from other players, and those of other players on their
dungeon (their own tokens on their own dungeon are subtracted from
their score), they win the game!

Some comments on the game….

1.) Components: First of all, I'm a very big fan of John Kovalic's
artwork, and considering the humorous theme of the game, it really
does work well here. I wish there was artwork on the treasure cards,
but the character cards will have to content me. Speaking of cards,
there are quite a few in the game, and all of them are of good
quality, with easy-to-read formatting. The pawn and tokens are less
than spectacular, with the pawn being rather generic and the tokens
simple cardboard discs of a color. Everything fits easily in the
small box, and the game takes only a short time to set up.

2.) Rules: The rules come on both sides of a sheet of paper and are
fairly easy to understand, even though no examples are included.
Still, I've had no trouble teaching the game to others, even teenagers
- with the only exception that a few players have trouble wrapping
their minds around the concept that a great dungeon delver equals a
pathetic fighter, and that their best fighters are easily picked off
in dungeons.

3.) Adventurers: Actually, even though it doesn't always make perfect
sense, I do enjoy the system of "best fighter = horrible in dungeons".
It keeps one player from dominating the game; because even though
they might decimate an opponent's party, they're likely to get
destroyed in the dungeons. For example, the Assassin, who is the most
powerful in player combat (he has a rank of "1"), has an "E" in every
dungeon category, meaning that he has an almost 1/3 chance of dying
every adventure. I also enjoy the character parody names, the
artwork, and how most of the dungeon world is lampooned.

4.) Combat: Player combat actually sounds more interesting than it
really is. You can usually see, before actually playing, just who is
going to win each fight; and it's often only a question of whether or
not the loser will draw any blood or not. Now mind you, that's
important, because every blood token counts at the end of the game;
but it's just not as exciting, as I hoped. There are a few surprises,
and it's always great to capture an opponent's character for your
party, but it's often more dumb luck than anything else. I will say,
however, that combat is quick (I won't say painless) and doesn't bog
down the game, like it does in the games that Dungeonville parodies.

5.) Time and Fun Factor: Munchkin would probably be a much more
enjoyable game, if it was over quickly. Dungeonville would probably
be a much more teeth-grinding game, if it took longer to play. As it
is, the length, which can be as short as twenty minutes, keeps it
entertaining without wearing on one's nerves. I enjoy it for the
short span we play, and the names and gameplay are laugh-inducing.
It's funny to watch someone's party get wiped out in a dungeon, even
if it was simply pure luck.

6.) Luck: Players who don't like luck will probably not enjoy the
game too much, even though there is some strategy in who one buys at
the auction, and where a player goes for their dungeon. The idea of
having a "hidden" dungeon sounds entertaining, but it's usually quite
simple to figure out which dungeon someone else owns - there's really
not much of a point to adventuring in your own dungeon. Players can
pick the dungeon for which their characters seem best prepared and
still get decimated, however overall - the stats seem to even out.

I'm not going to give this game a hearty thumbs up of approval, since
the appearance of strategy is mostly an allusion. Yet, I can't
disregard the game either, since it did make me laugh; and I was
definitely not opposed to playing it more than once. It's like a joke
that I can hear once or twice a year, and laugh each time. More than
that, and the humor starts to wear; but in moderation, Dungeonville
can be a funny parody for those immersed in the RPG culture.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"

Other Resources for Dungeonville:

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